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The Center for Islamic Studies welcomes all new and returning students, instructors, and visiting scholars for the academic year 2017-2018. We are honored and grateful to have Professor Mark Massoud, Associate Professor of Politics and Legal Studies at UC Santa Cruz as a Mellon Visiting Scholar, and Dr. Jessica Chen, PhD in Islamic Studies from Stanford University, working on Muslim-Buddhist dialogue while at the CIS/GTU. We are delighted that Carol Bier, Historian of Islamic Art, will continue her work with the CIS/GTU as Research Scholar, and also delighted that Dr. Kei Takahashi from...

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided funding to the GTU in support of the Madrasa-Midrasha Program, a collaborative interreligious effort cosponsored by the Center for Islamic Studies and the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies. We are pleased to announce research grants for GTU students and scholars working on interreligious projects related to Judaism and/or Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged.
The following criteria will be applied to determine winning proposals:
Student(s)...

From the Fall 2016 issue of Currents, view PDF
By Elizabeth S. Peña
Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God. —Gerhard Richter
The arts—literature, dance, music, and the visual arts—enhance religious experience and evoke transcendence. Artistic expression often provides common ground for scholars and practitioners representing a wide variety of faith traditions. In the classroom the arts offer entry into complex concepts and philosophies. These are just a few of the reasons why the...

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided the GTU a grant to support the Center for Islamic Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies in their joint programming for this academic year. We are pleased to announce grants for students working on an interreligious research project related to Judaism and Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged. Student must be in the GTU MA, ThD or PhD degree program focusing on Jewish Studies and/or Islamic Studies and/or have registered for a CJS or CIS class this...

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Flora Lamson Hewlett and the Hewlett Family
The Library serves as the academic core and the physical center of the shared effort that comprises the GTU. The building remains an architectural gem, serving all students of the consortium and members of wider community. This critical building would not have been possible without the lead gift from the Hewlett Family Foundation in honor of Flora Lamson Hewlett.
Flora Lamson Hewlett was born in 1914. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1935 with a degree in...

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John Dillenberger (Dean ‘63-‘69, President ‘67-‘71)
John Dillenberger was integral to the GTU’s creation. Born in 1918, he was a Dean of the Faculty at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He served as the GTU’s dean from 1964 to 1969 and as its first president from 1967 to 1972. He would later serve again as Acting President from 1999-2000. He also served the GTU as Acting Library Director. At the GTU, he was a professor of historical theology, particularly interested in the history of science. Much of his academic...

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Bishop John Cummins
John Stephen Cummins, a native to Berkeley, was born in 1928 to Irish immigrants. He began to study for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s College in Mountainview, California, graduating in 1949. He attended seminary at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, graduating in 1953 with an MDiv.
He was ordained in 1953 and began to serve at Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. His brother Bernard also became a priest and would later become superintendent of the schools...

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John Weiser
John has been involved with the GTU since 1998, and was Chairman of our Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2007. Among his many efforts to ensure the GTU’s academic, programmatic, administrative, and financial success, he endowed a Presidential Scholarship, and helped launch the capital campaign with a major gift; helped draft the Common Agreement between member schools and the GTU; and spearheaded the committee to find GTU President James A. Donahue. He embodied the GTU’s interfaith mission by creating an...

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Glenn R. Bucher (President ’92-’99)
Glenn Bucher was President of the Graduate Theological Union from 1992 to 1999. He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics and philosophy from Elizabethtown College, the M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. in the sociology of religion from Boston University. From 1999-2005 he was Executive Director of The Boyer Center at Messiah College. Previously, Dean of Faculty at The College of Wooster and Professor of Religious Studies at Howard University (...

Sarlo Award-winner Dr. Munir Jiwa reflects on art and Muslim identity, interreligious dialogue, and the growth of the GTU’s Center for Islamic Studies
From the Fall 2015 issue of Currents
What does it mean to be Muslim, and how does Islamic tradition find expression in contemporary life? Some might expect to find the answer to such questions by visiting a mosque or speaking with an imam. But throughout his academic career, Dr. Munir Jiwa has sought to address these questions more expansively. “Being Muslim is not just a theological commitment,” says Jiwa, “it can also be a cultural or...

Below are a select group of people, one from each of our members, who have embodied the values and enhanced the community of the Graduate Theological Union during its first 50 years. For their legacy of service, we honor them with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sharon-Gay Smith
Graduate Theological Union, Consortial Registrar (1971-2008)
Sharon-Gay Smith was born in February 1942. She spent her youth travelling around the world with her family, courtesy of the US Army and Air Force. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in anthropology and political...

Many, many people were instrumental to the success of the GTU during its first 50 years. The GTU created this space in 2012 to honor the contributions of the most seminal figures of the GTU's first half-decade.
You can also view key figures in GTU history by decade:
1962-69 | 1970-79 | 1980-89 | 1990-99 | 2000-2012
In addition, for our 50th anniversary in 2012, each member school choose one person who embodies the spirit of the GTU to be recognized for a lifetime of contributions in service of the GTU.
John Dillenberger (Dean ‘63-‘69, President ‘67-‘71)
John Dillenberger was...

An institution of higher learning unlike any other, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions and wisdom traditions to advance new knowledge, share inspiration, and collaborate on solutions.